Class, Mobility and Merit The Experience of Two British Birth Cohorts

(2001) - R. Breen, J. H. Goldthorpe

Journal: European Sociological Review
Link:: https://academic.oup.com/esr/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/esr/17.2.81
DOI:: 10.1093/esr/17.2.81
Links::
Tags:: #paper #NCDS #Mobility #SocialClass #BCS
Cite Key:: [@Breen2001]

Abstract

The controversial issue of `meritocracy' can be most productively addressed if it is treated as one of direction of change over time: i.e. whether individual merit, understood in terms of ability, e¡ort, or educational attainment, is growing in importance in processes of social selection. To test the thesis of `increasing merit selection', we analyse data from two British cohort studies relating to children born in 1958 and 1970 respectively. We ¢nd that, from the later to the earlier cohort, the pattern of relative rates of class mobility changed little; and that individual merit, as we are able to measure it, did not play a greater part in mediating the association between class origins and destinations. In fact, the e¡ects of ability and educational attainment on individuals' relative mobility chances diminished somewhat. These ¢ndings, we argue, are less surprising than they may at ¢rst appear if viewed in the context of the problematic relationship between the idea of meritocracy and the operation of a free-market economy.

Notes

“e¡ects of ability and educational attainment on individuals' relative mobility chances diminished somewhat” (Breen and Goldthorpe, 2001, p. 81)